A top-ranking Bangor school official who resigned earlier this month was arrested by Brewer police Thursday night for possession of sexually explicit material.Sign in or Subscribe to view this content.

The Bangor School Department’s former top finance official was arrested by Brewer police late Thursday night on a warrant and charged with two counts of possession of sexually explicit material.

Alan Kochis, 62, resigned earlier this month from the Bangor School Department after Maine State Police seized electronics from his home. He had allegedly uploaded a sexually explicit image of two boys to the internet.

Kochis, of Brewer, was the school department’s longtime business services director, involved in preparing the school department’s annual budget and overseeing its accounting system. He resigned effective Aug. 9 after he reported that he was under investigation by law enforcement, according to Bangor schools Superintendent Betsy Webb.

Kochis was arrested around midnight and brought to the Penobscot County Jail. He was released Friday morning after posting $500 for bail, with conditions that include no unsupervised contact with minors under 18. He is expected to appear in court on Sept. 11, according to the Penobscot County district attorney’s office.

According to a police affidavit filed in court in Bangor, the Maine State Police in February received a report of the uploaded image from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which monitors child pornography possession and dissemination. Maine law enforcement officials then traced the image to Kochis using his device’s Internet Protocol, or IP, address.

Kochis had allegedly uploaded the image of two boys — police estimated one to be between ages 5 and 8 and the other to be between 9 and 13 — to Bing Image, an online image repository. Bing Image then reported the photo to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to the affidavit.

Citing probable cause that Kochis was in possession of and disseminating child pornography, police then secured a warrant in May to search his Brewer home and seize any related evidence, including electronic devices, the affidavit said.

Police seized three laptops, a desktop computer, a thumb drive storage device and a cell phone from Kochis’ home.

“These are serious allegations and we want the community to know, the Bangor School Department has no evidence or information that these allegations are connected to the Bangor School Department or Mr. Kochis’ employment,” Webb said in a statement released Friday morning.

Kochis has worked for the Bangor School Department since 1997, according to Webb. He worked in the school department’s central administrative office at Bangor City Hall.

One of the charges Kochis faces is for a Class C crime, related to an image of a child under 12. The other charge is for a Class D crime, related to an image of children between ages 12 and 16, according to the district attorney’s office.

A Class C crime is a felony that carries a penalty of up to five years in prison and a fine up to $5,000. A Class D crime carries a penalty of up to a year in prison and a fine up to $2,000.

Kochis’ lawyer, Jeffrey Silverstein of Bangor, said he had no comment on the case until reviewing evidence.